Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of music instruction and more specifically to an apparatus, system and method for teaching music and other art form instruction.
Background of the Art
The invention includes a new, multidimensional, holistic approach to music and other art form instruction to serve as an improved contemporary alternative, or supplement, to the more traditional teaching methods such as the Suzuki® Method or the educational music series such as Hanon or Schaum, each which have inherent drawbacks and limitations.
The traditional teaching systems each have their unique strengths, but unfortunately, they also have many inadequacies. While most teaching methods incorporate a progressive approach to learning by differentiating between levels, such as beginner, intermediate, and advanced, the student is not afforded the ability to learn elements that come natural to them and to advance these particular elements without first mastering all the other elements offered at that level. Most teaching methods incorporate basic musical elements such as melody, rhythm, harmonics and pitch; however, they do not necessarily incorporate all these elements holistically in every lesson. They are instead offered in disparate pieces. While a few teaching methods might provide the student with beginning levels of a particular song and then provide progressively more complex versions of the same song for the student to build upon, none provide enough discrete levels for a particular song to enable a student to progress smoothly from a beginner to an advanced player. Most music methods are focused on a unidimensional teaching approach such as teaching music through body rhythm, written notation, rote memorization, or listening. None take into consideration that each student has their own approach to learning by offering multiple paths towards learning. And finally, none of the historical or currently popular methods were designed to exploit current technologies such as video streaming over the internet, tablet computing, and social networks. Therefore, there is a need for a an instructional method that provides students with multiple paths of progressive learning that addresses both the individual's abilities and interests while utilizing current technologies such as the internet, mobile computing, and social networks.